Oliver's ex-wife begins the tale, by telling the story of how they met, fell in love and lived in New York for a number of years before moving to North Carolina. Oliver had gotten a teaching job at a university there and he also believed that the quiet life would give him an excellent opportunity to paint more. She also explains how Oliver's behavior became erratic and how the marriage eventually ended.
From her, Marlow finds out finally who Mary is and searches her out. Mary tells her story of how she and Robert met the first time and then again a second time many years later. They had a short and somewhat stormy relationship and she also spoke of his erratic behavior.
So what was the erratic behavior? Well, he painted the same woman's face and sometimes body over and over and over again. Every day. All day long. When he was married, he painted entire scenes of her in the attic. He had a showing of paintings of nothing but images of her. He continued to paint only her in the mental hospital as well. No one in his life knew who this woman was and if anyone asked him, he got mad and wouldn't answer.
One of the items that Oliver showed up with at the hospital when he was admitted was a set of letters from the 1800's between an artist Beatrice and her husband's Uncle that were written in French. Oliver allowed Marlow to take the letters, make copies of them and have them translated. The letters are a love story between Beatrice and her Uncle and the translated letters are woven throughout this book.
It isn't until the very end of the book that the stories of Oliver's ex-wife, Marlow's personal life, Mary and Beatrice all are revealed and the mystery of the Swan Thieves is finally explained.
The Swan Thieves is a very interesting story with lots of art interweaved in the story-line. There are also multiple love stories going on all at the same time. Personally, if I'd realized it had so much love story gunk in it, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. Having said that, it was a really good book despite the gunk (!) and a good mystery that lasted to the end of the book.
Rating: 7 / 10
ISBN: 9780316065788
Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.
Edition: 1st
Remainder: No